Hogwarts Card System Chapter 253

Chapter 251: Breathing Technique: Joy of Fire~

“Remus, why are you here to be a professor?”

“Dumbledore really couldn’t find anyone. You should know that Mr. Quentin Trimble is hospitalized at St. Mungo’s and won’t be discharged for at least two or three months, if he’s lucky… so he found me.”

“Do you know about the legend of this position?”

“You mean the curse? Of course, I’ve heard of it. After all, when we were in school, this position already changed hands every year.”

“Then why are you still getting involved in this mess?”

“It’s not getting involved in a mess, just helping Dumbledore out. Besides, I’ve wanted to come back and see for a long time. The seven years here were the best time of my life, and of course, I’ll get better and better in the future.”

Lupin smiled very happily. The Wolfsbane Potion Ted brought him had almost given him a second life.

Although he had been doing well in Muggle society with Sirius’s financial support, the uncontrollability of every full moon was like a knife repeatedly stabbing his heart.

Now it’s fine! He finally didn’t have to fear losing control. Even his confidence as a person had increased significantly, and his life had become more positive.

Otherwise, with his previous personality, he wouldn’t have allowed Tonks to “intern” with him.

Seeing Ted frowning, he said, “Don’t worry, not every Defense Against the Dark Arts professor will be so unlucky as to be either dead or severely injured. We discovered a secret back then: many professors would leave directly when they were about to complete a year of teaching, so they wouldn’t trigger the curse. Only those who don’t believe in evil will be unlucky~”

“Alright…”

Ted didn’t know what to say. Should he tell him that this curse would become even stronger after Voldemort’s resurrection? That even just having served could lead to death?

The future can be changed, and so can curses. It’s up to people!

…

Soon, Ted and their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class began.

Since they had already been delayed for over a week, all four houses took the class together to catch up on progress.

Lupin looked at the somewhat excited and eager students in front of him and showed a gentle smile: “Students, I’ve looked at the lesson plans from the past two years… I’m very sorry, but I’m afraid we’ll have to start from scratch.”

“Due to certain reasons, your teaching progress in the first two years has been very limited, and the teaching content is scattered. We need to work doubly hard to catch up.”

“Alright, don’t rush to open your textbooks. Although I don’t really want to say this, the textbooks you’re reading are somewhat outdated.”

Lupin spoke in a confident yet gentle manner: “Did you know that in the past decade alone, the number of new magical creatures and magical existences discovered in the wizarding world has reached a quarter of what was discovered in the past five hundred years!”

“And most of your textbooks were published ten years ago.”

“Some bad news, before coming to class, I inquired through a friend about the policies of the Ministry of Magic’s Wizarding Examinations Authority. It’s said that they are already planning to reform the O.W.L.s exams two years from now, with a large-scale change in the scope and content of the questions…”

He pointed his finger, then swept it around, “Precisely, you are the first batch.”

The young wizards in their seats immediately let out a sigh of lament, feeling as if all their strength had been drained.

They had been confused and half-baked in Defense Against the Dark Arts for the past two years, and now the standardized test in two years was going to be reformed, and they had to be the first batch of experimental guinea pigs. How could they be so unlucky?!

Neville, thinking of getting a “T (Troll)” for his O.W.L.s Defense Against the Dark Arts score, started to shake.

Ron also tensed up for a moment, but then he was fine the next second.

Let it all be destroyed, I’m tired.

Anyway, it doesn’t affect my eating chicken legs, whatever!

See, Ron cured his internal friction in three seconds~

Seeing the young wizards’ low morale, Lupin quickly remedied: “Of course, there’s no need to be too nervous. Although the first batch is a bit sudden, the Examination Authority won’t be so heartless. They will certainly lower the difficulty appropriately. In short, it’s not too late to start working hard now.”

“Alright, back to the main topic, let’s start class! Our first lesson is: How to distinguish between a human and a magical creature…”

What is a “human,” and what is a “magical creature”?

A certain former Minister for Magic once defined it: anyone who walks on two legs is a human.

As a result, goblins caused trouble and brought a flock of chickens, ducks, and geese the next day.

And centaurs have four legs, merpeople have no legs! How should that be counted?

Later, another Minister for Magic redefined it: anyone who can speak human language is a human.

The next day, the goblins came to cause trouble again, bringing a group of trolls.

Although trolls are intellectually inferior, some can indeed speak simple words.

It wasn’t until 1811 that Grogan Stump was appointed Minister for Magic. Grogan Stump specifically redefined humans and beasts.

He believed that a human was “any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear some responsibility in the formulation of those laws.”

With this, the debate in the magical world that had begun in the 14th century was resolved.

Grogan Stump established three departments under the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures: the Being Division, the Beast Division, and later the Ghost Division.

It’s worth mentioning that many humanoid creatures and humans do not have reproductive isolation.

For example, Veela, giants (the importance of the Engorgement Charm!), goblins, house-elves (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), etc. However, the Ministry of Magic strictly prohibits non-humans from using wands.

Even though the Ministry of Magic often seems like a bunch of incompetent fools, on this matter, the Ministry of Magic’s prohibition is comparable to China’s gun ban!

This also indirectly shows how dangerous those wand-wielding goblins in the goblin rebellion were.

They were literally risking their lives, living by the sword. So when they struck, they truly struck to kill!

The types of magical creatures were finalized five years ago, still as a provisional measure, roughly divided into: animals, plants, insects, magical beasts, humanoid monsters, spirits, undead creatures, constructs, elemental creatures, aberrations, fiends, dragons…

There are many types, because the more finely they are categorized, the more complex the varieties become, almost like the number of genders in the West.

Clearly, Lupin took the role of a teacher very seriously. Compared to the previous two professors, he was much more diligent—his lesson preparation was very detailed, the content was super practical, and he put in a lot of effort.

To put it this way, just in this lesson, Ted had never even heard of five or six of the typical monsters he used as examples.

It seemed he had been doing well these past few years.

Although he worked as a detective in Muggle society, he was well-versed in the changes in the wizarding world.

Indeed, since Sirius was fine, he would certainly take care of his only remaining good friend.

After one class, the young wizards’ evaluation of Lupin soared.

After two consecutive years of slacker professors, they almost couldn’t believe there was such a good Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?

This was simply a perfect professor!

The following week, the young wizards were immersed in diligent study.

Hermione also unexpectedly gained the appreciation of Professor Bathsheda Babbling, the Ancient Runes professor.

As mentioned before, this professor was somewhat of an external, part-time employee and didn’t like to manage things, so she promoted Hermione to “Ancient Runes Class Representative,” responsible for collecting, grading homework, and other tasks.

Now, she could be said to have entered the student prefect selection sequence early!

Soon, September 19th arrived, Hermione’s birthday.

Ted gave her an automatic cat-grooming brush. Because it was inlaid with a malachite, it was very beautiful, so Crookshanks loved it very much and even hugged it to sleep.

During this time, Ted also taught his friends the “Flame Breathing” knowledge from another world in his mind, but everyone’s progress was very limited.

Besides Ted, only Neville felt something. Following the breathing rhythm could strengthen his body, while the other friends were still in the exploration stage.

This thing, after all, is outside the magical system, and the mode of thinking is different.

The reason Neville was able to achieve something was precisely because he was more “simple.”

Smart people like Harry and Hermione would think a lot, wanting to explain, wanting to pursue. While Ron and Jerry were not diligent enough.

Only Neville, who had no distracting thoughts and didn’t care about the principle or rationality of this thing, simply breathed and exhaled, and was very persistent, which actually yielded results.

Most notably, during their morning exercises, Ted and Neville were now running a lap around the Black Lake and could complete it within 30 minutes, which already exceeded the performance of ordinary professional long-distance runners!

Ted’s physique had long surpassed that of an average adult. And Neville was truly impressive; at just 13 years old, he was already 176 cm tall and looked like a young man when wearing a suit!

Neville felt that maintaining this breathing method made his heart and lungs strong and powerful. He could run for over ten kilometers without getting out of breath at all!

Instead, his whole body felt warm and very comfortable!

The more he ran, the happier he became; the more he breathed, the more joyful he became!

After all, this is an idealistic magical world, and under this mindset, the Flame Breathing slowly began to undergo special changes…

(End of Chapter)